Utility Run

bywarriorwomanon28 April, 2008

I’m supposed to be off work at the moment on study leave but it may as well be called gardening leave as I’m spending all my time on the allotment. Today I thought I’d make my non-studying day a little bit more productive by running to the plot and I’m glad I did as it brought me and the sportband just that little bit closer.

As usual I left the house with both wrists laden with super sporty gadgets but the garmin was playing me about big time. I was walking down the street exceedingly slowly but it was still taking an age sighting satellites. As I passed WHSmith I got bored and nipped in to see if they had anymore veg growing gazettes that I hadn’t yet read.
They hadn’t.
I went back out and the flippin garmin started back from scratch scanning the skies. A couple of minutes later, after numerous elderly folk had stood on the backs of my heels I decided it was time to start running – the gps would just have to run along behind me.

500m later the garmin beeped at me and asked if I was actually inside! I switched it off – power to the people! I was only running 2k so I couldn’t afford 10 mins at the start just to capture data, I could have walked it in that time.

My new discovery, the bit that makes me almost love the sportband, is all down to Buckeye. The training log over there on the righthand sidebar is driven by buckeyeoutdoor and if you have a blog you owe it to yourself to register and get yourself a widget – just look how cool it is! They’ve set up a Nike+ challenge and if you join that and then enter your Nike+ username in your profile, all your runs get automatically uploaded. In this day and age where I seem to be uploading my stats to about a million trillion different online logs, that sort of convenience is just impossible to resist.

Huzzah. Switch on, press start – Run! That’s what I love about running, the simplicity of it. Talking of this it would be simple to go running if I could walk, rather than stumble. The link doesn’t work, it should be http://www.earthwoman.co.uk/. ATB, Andrew

“In this day and age where I seem to be uploading my stats to about a million trillion different online logs, that sort of convenience is just impossible to resist.” My dear, for you to be entering stats into a million, trillion different web pages, first you would have to DO a workout to get some stats.

I got into the Nike + vs. Garmin thing with a chick at work the other day. She took her Nike onto the treadmill and it was like half a mile per hour off. Then she sped up and it said that she slowed down. I don’t know, i don’t trust it.

My garmin’s been getting better about picking up reception, but maybe that’s just me. Then again, we just got a new computer and I can’t get it to work THERE at all.

I haven’t tried it on a cross country route but the foot pods systems are usually thought to be more accurate on hilly terrain than gps which has a greater margin of error in the vertical plane than horizontal.

I personally wouldn’t make my choice on the basis of accuracy. I’m not reliant on a metre accurate distance reading, instead I would look for a watch that gives me the information I want both on the run and off it. For me that’s the garmin but for others I imagine the minimal simplicity and ease of the Nike+ sportband will really appeal.

Do you use the MotionBased website to record any of your runs? If so, do you have the problems I have? You mention that you can’t afford 10 minutes to wait until your Garmin locks on to a satellite signal. I get completely frustrated by the amount of time taken to process running data.

The site frequently times out and I’ve heard from their support desk that Garmin Connect (Motion Based successor from what I can understand) won’t be available until late August / September. Unless, that is, you want to shell out for a new Forerunner 405! (Nothing like supporting your existing customer base, eh!)

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!